During Extinction Rebellion Denmarks week-long event “Vendepunktet” [the turning point] I participated by creating this creative happening in collaboration with a group of activists. I invented the character Woke Margrethe, as a satirical characted inspired by Queen Margereth II of Denmark. The idea was to imagine what would happen, if the Danish queen one day so-to-say woke up and started taking climate activism really seriously.

The event took place on the 5th on May on the Danish holiday of “Store Bededag” which roughly translates to the Big Praying Day. For our protest we renamed it to “Store Borgertingsdag” meaning Big Citizens Assembly Day. We protested in front the the preliminary COP27 meetings at Moltkes Palæ in Copenhagen and Woke Margrethe bid all the activists welcome to this day of discussing the current state of our democracy. In her speech she announced that she wanted to give away her formal power as queen to the people, instead of – as now – the politicians.

I created all the props for Woke Margrethe using recycled materials from other projects or found objects such as the matte glass for the crown, which were found by the beach.

Below you can read the speech in full – in Danish: